Review: War of the Green Lanterns Part 8

If you've been waiting for the true "holy s***" moment in this epic, John Stewart brings it and brings it hard in Green Lantern Corps #60.

Green Lantern Corps #60 is where the rubber hits the road in War Of The Green Lanterns. All the work, all the planning, everything has led up to this point and it delivers with both barrels. Green Lanterns #66 laid the groundwork for all of this and what the fallout will be is anybody’s guess. Something happens in this issue, something that will re-shape the Green Lanterns forever. War Of The Green Lanterns isn’t over but when fans talk about the series in the coming years, Green Lantern Corps #60 will be acknowledged as the turning point.

John Stewart and Kyle Rainer have rocketed to try and save Mogo, the Green Lantern planet and the heart of the entire Green Lantern Corps. Mogo is the moral core; the guiding force of the Corps and his connection to the main Oa battery has rendered him possessed by Parallax and under the control of Kronos. Looking to help Kronos launch his new emotionally driven Corps, Mogo is releasing all the reserve lantern rings, thousands of them. If they find matches, a wave of death will sweep through universe after universe.

The two remaining sane lanterns move towards Mogo’s core and discover that there is still residue from Black Lanterns permeating the its center. This is where everything changes. In one instant a decision is made that could change the future of the Green Lanterns the way Hal Jordan’s possession by Parallax did back in the day. John Stewart, the man already plagued with guilt for destroying one world, plugs into the power of the Black Lantern and blows up Mogo. No joke no deception, no last minute savior. Mogo, the heart of the Green Lanterns, is dead.

Writer Tony Bedard plays the entire thing like a symphony. When Mogo’s destruction comes the moment has weight to it. You stop, you re-read the pages, and then you sit in disbelief. Not just because of the death of Mogo at the hands of John Stewart, but also the uncertainty of where the Lanterns will go from here. Bedard joins Geoff Johns in pulling the rug out from under the Green Lantern Universe. Even withWar Of The Green Lanterns unfinished, the real mystery is what will happen once it does resolve.

Tyler Kirkham holds art duties for Green Lantern Corps #60 and he does a decent job. I won’t lie; Kirkham’s work doesn’t come close to Doug Mahnke’s stuff in the Green Lantern series. The pencils here aren’t bad, they just don’t match the words or the action. Everything feels just shy of being amazing and it dulls some of the edge from the story. Same with the inks and colors, it all lacks the depth of the Green Lantern art. Though Green Lantern Corps #60 is the pinnacle of the War Of The Green Lanterns, it’s ultimately let down by the art.

I hope DC lets this whole situation play out. I hope they don’t cheapen the tremendous work on War Of The Green Lanterns by bringing Mogo back or having his “essence” placed inside another world. That would remove any and all emotional weight from the story and that would be a shame. I’m going to assume that DC understands this and that the purpose to these last few years, from the rebirth of Hal Jordan through War Of The Green Lanterns, is to redefine the future of the cosmic peacekeepers.